The History of CAD Software

CEL* CELMFG.COM CAD THE HISTORY OF COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN 1950's The very first graphical system was developed in the mid-1950's for the US Air Force's Semi Automatic Ground Environment system. It became operational in June of 1958. 1957 Dr. Patrick J. Hanratty (the "Father of CAD CAM" as he is now known) programmed PROMO, the first numerical control programming software system. This opened the door to the development of CAD software, 1960's The first CAD software, Sketchpad, was developed by MIT PhD student named Ivan Sutherland. Such early software delivered 2D results only. It was used primarily by aerospace and automotive companies as there were few 1965 other industries that could afford computers. Cambridge University's Computing Laboratory began research into 3D CAD software led by Charles Lang. The results of this research did not apear until the 70s, but this and other European research contributed to the 3D software that appeared in 1970's the following years. The next decade saw the move from entirely 2D software to the release of 3D CAD tools. SynthaVision, the first 3D solid modeling program was released in 1972. More CAD software was also programmed and the 3D algorithms saw major updates over these years. 1980's Intergraph, previously M&s Computing, released the InterAct and InterPro complex 3D software tools in 1983. The introduction of UNIX workstations led to a host of CAD tools developed for this platform from many sources including SUN and Silicon. 1982 This year saw the founding of Autodesk. In November, the company released the first version of AutoCAD, the first ever CAD software for PC, Both the company and the software still remain leaders in their industry. 1990's The '90s saw the release of multiple popular mid-range tools including SolidWorks 95 3D, SolidEdge, and Autodesk Inventor, In 1996, Autodesk released Mechanical Desktop. their first fully functional 3D CAD tool, and it quickly became the top selling piece of software in its class. 21st Century The 2000's saw the first client-side CAD tools, with the release of Alibre Design and Autodesk 2000i, among others. Virtually no product is created today without use of CAD software to simulate reality. Sources: http://www.cadhistory.net/02%20Brief%200verview.pdf http://www.cadazz.com/cad-software-history.htm http://prezi.com/a4gewxpfyhdw/timeline-of-cad/ http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/6917 SINCE 1995 CEL MFG. PREMIER FABRICATION SERVICES -